Articles by: James Swackhammer
I previously showed you how to create etch marks using existing geometry from Hole Wizard holes. Having redundancies can prevent mistakes and help out manufacturing. This is sort of like the carpentry saying of “measure twice, cut once”. Having a callout of the Hole Wizards…
Several times in my career I’ve had rush jobs that need an estimate right away, or, the material might be a long lead request/special order coming from another city or in some cases a different country. Having the basic dimensions of a part can help…
When designing sheet metal parts within SOLIDWORKS you may want to add in etch marks to be etched later by the laser or HD plasma machines. Adding etch marks helps communication for later options. My example here is a part that’s going to be laser…
How to automatically create a SOLIDWORKS Sheet Metal Flat Pattern Configuration
If a job can be automated in SOLIDWORKS and reduces the amount of time it takes to create I say do it, especially if it works every time. The flat pattern can be created automatically while making a drawing and since most parts require a…
Building on the previous article about adding a decal and masking the background, there are occasions where we need to take masking a step further to get the desired result. I’m going to add another decal below my Javelin decal. This is the same procedure…
Have you ever applied or used decals in SOLIDWORKS? What I learned is that not everything has the background colour you need for the decal you have. Sometimes you just want the background of the decal to match the colour of the object you’re putting…
Today we are going to decide which is the better tool to use when adding flanges to a sheet metal part: Sketch Bend vs Edge Flange. Sketch Bend and Edge Flange are two very different tools that produce similar results. Why do they exist if…
In this article I am going to make a very basic sheet metal box with two different creation techniques to determine which is more efficient, delivers more accurate results, and looks better. Before you jump to conclusions thinking which method is better, you might be…
In part 4 of my making a Sheet Metal Duct guide, I showed how to get the best material yield. Today I’m going to show you how to add etch marks so that all parts can be rolled together as one, zip cut, reordered and…